General Authorities and General Officers

Elder Robert C. Gay

Elder Robert C. Gay was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on March 31, 2012. At the time of his call, he had been serving as a member of the Sixth Quorum of the Seventy in the North America Southeast Area. He recently served at Church headquarters as chairman of the Self-Reliance Services/Perpetual Education Fund Committee with responsibilities for worldwide self-reliance services. He is currently serving as the President of the Asia North Area.

Elder Gay received a bachelor of arts degree in economics with an emphasis in statistics from the University of Utah in 1976. In 1982 he received a PhD in business economics from Harvard University. Most recently, he was the chief executive officer of a large investment firm he cofounded. Previously, he served 15 years as a managing director at Bain Capital. Prior to Bain, Elder Gay worked in investment banking on Wall Street and was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and an instructor in economics at Harvard University. Throughout his career, Elder Gay has also cofounded and served as a director on several global humanitarian organizations that have built schools, medical clinics, microenterprises, and protected children at risk. His extensive work in these areas has helped lift many around the world out of poverty.

Elder Gay has served in numerous Church callings, including full-time missionary in Spain, ward mission leader, high priests group leader, Gospel Doctrine teacher, ward Young Men president, high councilor, counselor in a bishopric, mission president, and Area Seventy.

Robert Christopher Gay was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 1, 1951. He married Lynette Nielsen in April 1974. They are the parents of seven children.